Firefighter bootcamp puts regular folks through the paces

When Gayle Dellinger put out the call last year for the first New Orleans firefighters calendar, she easily found a dozen firemen to strike a pose with less than a week's notice.

This year was even easier.

"They started working out last year after the calendar went out," says Dellinger, a New Orleans Rotary Club member and the marketing force behind the "Fire Fighters Look Hot" calendar that raises money for a mobile command van for the department.

"It's not a sexual thing," Dellinger says. "It's a health and fitness thing."

As if to prove the point, this year the firefighters staged a secondary fundraiser: the Firefighter Workout Challenge. In conjunction with Salvation Studio, a health and fitness center right across the street from Engine 1 fire station on Magazine Street, the firefighters put regular folks through a boot-camp-style workout using the tools of the lifesaving trade.

It came as no surprise that those who signed up for the workout on Saturday were all women. In a two-hour workout, they hoisted 40-pound firehoses, performed ladder climbs wearing weighted vests, carried spine boards weighted down with barbells and dumbbells, and executed dips on the bumper of the firetruck.

Sliding down the infamous fire pole was lagniappe.

In reality, the firefighters at the Magazine Street fire station seldom slide down the pole. But their jobs do require wearing about 70 to 80 pounds of clothing and equipment -- boots with steel shanks and toes, three-layer bunker pants with a layer of Kevlar, fiberglass helmet, face mask with tank -- while climbing ladders, scaling fences, breaking through doors and windows, navigating unstable floors and surfaces and often carrying unconscious victims from burning or smoke-filled buildings.

Those who apply for the job are initially required to pass a few tests of strength and agility -- dragging 150 feet of 3-inch hose 50 feet, pulling a 175-pound dummy 100 feet, carrying 75 pounds of 3-inch hose up six floors and scaling a 6-foot fence clad in the required gear and equipment. But surprisingly, the department has no continuing fitness program.

"While being fit is not mandatory, it's strongly encouraged since the job pretty much demands it," says Capt. Tom Howley (Mr. December 2009, for those of you with calendars), a firefighter for 16 years.

But the two most important fitness needs, says Howley, 47, are "flexibility and heart health."

Heart disease is the No.¤1 killer of firefighters. According to a 2007 study published by the New England Journal of Medicine, firefighters are at a greater risk of dying from a heart attack while responding to emergencies.

"When the bell goes off, the adrenaline goes through the roof," Howley says. "We go from sleeping to working as fast as we can. We have to be dressed and out the door in under a minute."

Add to that, local firefighters no longer have the central alarm system they had before Hurricane Katrina. Now they spend their 24-hour shifts with a radio in one ear. Even when sleeping, they stay on alert for emergency calls -- from car accidents to medical emergencies to house fires and more. Sound sleep is not an option.

Adding to the stress level of a firefighter's job is the fact that most have second jobs. Some have third jobs.

Howley, for example, is a contractor and also teaches marine and industrial firefighting for Delgado College. Greg Matusoff (Mr. February 2009), a firefighter for two years, has a design business.

Matusoff is training for a half-ironman in the spring and his first marathon in February. He swims, runs, bikes or spins, takes cardio classes, takes hot yoga and surfs in Lake Pontchartrain when the north wind is up.

"The job is part of the reason I work out, but it's also a personal thing," Matusoff says. "I told myself when I turned 40, I wanted to be in the best physical shape ever."

Howley has a black belt in Tai Kwon Do and maintains a disciplined routine of circuit training and cardio classes such as body pump, body combat or kick-boxing. Percy Baldwin, 28, last year's Mr. July and the cover model for 2009, simply works out because it is something he has done since he was 15. He runs several times a week and practices weight-training and calisthenics.

While many, but not all, firefighters maintain fitness routines for personal reasons, "functional training" for Matusoff and Howley is often incorporated into their personal workouts.

"We take the things they do in their jobs and replicate that with something they do in the gym -- like what they carry," says Rusty Roussel of Salvation Studio, who orchestrated the exercises for the Firefighter Workout Challenge. "We have a weighted vest they wear while doing walking lunges and carrying a heavy dumbbell in one hand so they have to incorporate balance. We use a weighted bar to simulate the Halligan tool they use to knock through walls and have them do squats and other exercises with it, such as incorporating a balance disc so they get used to unstable surfaces, much like the situations they would encounter in the field."

Not all firefighters aim for a place in the annual calendar, but many adhere to personal fitness goals. A weight room on premises at several firehouses makes it convenient for those who have the inclination.

Daryl Keene, a firefighter for 13 years, started putting together a makeshift gym for his fellow co-workers at the Engine 1 station when he first came on duty. Over time, it became a complete workout room.

"I'm here for 24 hours," Keene says, "so I may as well stay in shape."

THE 'FIREFIGHTERS LOOK HOT 2009' CALENDAR

Proceeds from the sale of the $20 calendar, sponsored by the New Orleans Rotary Club, go to The New Orleans Firefighters Foundation to help raise funds for the purchase of a mobile command van. For more information, go to www.hotnolafirefighters.com.

Health and fitness writer Chris Bynum can be reached at cbynum@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3458. Comment or read past stories at www.nola.com/health.